Control your stress manage your time

he number of men and women seeking psychological, psychiatric or medical advice and treatment diagnosed with a sub-layer of uncontrolled stress and anxiety is impressive and even more im

GEORGIOS P PIPEROPOULOS

CONTROL YOUR STRESS

& MANAGE YOUR TIME!

Control Your Stress & Manage Your Time!

1 st edition

© 2017 Georgios P Piperopoulos & bookboon.com

ISBN 978-87-403-1373-4

CONTROL YOUR STRESS &

2 Our nervous systems and the physiology of stress 16

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CONTROL YOUR STRESS &

To my daughter Anastasia (Natasha)

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CONTROL YOUR STRESS &

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Georgios P Piperopoulos studied sociology and psychology at American, German and Austrian Universities receiving his Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D degrees; taught at several American, European and Greek Universities at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels before retiring from his professorial chair at the Department of Business Administration,

he University of Macedonia, hessaloniki, Greece

Dr Piperopoulos is currently Visiting Professor at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, UK He was Visiting Professor at Newcastle University Business School, U.K from 8/2013 to 8/2016

He has held a variety of managerial posts in private enterprises and public social services organizations in the USA and Europe

He has developed and taught Leadership, Communication, Stress Management and Psychological Operations courses at the Supreme Joint War College of the Hellenic Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air force), the Army staf training school, the Hellenic Police Continuing Education Centre and at the Greek branch of the United Nations Peace Serving Operations Training Centre

Professor Piperopoulos has published several textbooks and many popular books in Greek and English and authored hundreds of articles and editorials in leading Greek Newspapers and magazines He has been a frequent guest on Greek TV and radio programs as a commentator and, for several years, presented his own show titled ‘I Communicate herefore I am’ in Greek National and Regional TV channels and Radio stations He has delivered hundreds

of public lectures to groups in Greece, Europe and the USA

His book Fundamentals of Communication, PR and Leadership has been published by BookBoon - http://bookboon.com/en/fundamentals-of-communication-p-r-and-leadership-ebook

His daughter Dr Natasha (Anastasia) Piperopoulou lives with her son in Athens and is employed as psychologist in a public school for training and educating adolescents with special needs His son Dr Panagiotis (Panos) Piperopoulos is Associate Professor at the Management School, University of Liverpool, UK

CONTROL YOUR STRESS &

Welcome to the so-called stress mode.

You are at the university library, some unexpected chores last night hindered you from tidying up the power slide show for your presentation to your graduate seminar and as you rush to get the job done you feel your blood pressure and heart beats are on the rise and your available time has gone into the debit column…

You have entered the so-called stress mode.

It has been another of those we routinely call ‘normal’ days at your place of work, some customers complaining, some smiling with gratitude; you have had the usual sandwich for lunch and the proverbial chit-chat with a couple of colleagues at cofee break As you prepare for your return home, your stomach begins to turn into a knot, your attitude drops

to pessimism on the thought of spending yet another evening with a partner who once was the source of afection and inspiration but lately of negativism and rejection mercilessly stealing away the better of you…

You are now dwelling in a chronic so-called stress mode.

Don’t ask students, working men and women or managerial personnel if they are familiar with stress and anxiety or if they have found the secret of efectively managing their time

If you happen to be a middle school, college or university student, a working person or a manager you already know, from your personal experiences and the shared experiences of colleagues, what will be the answer to these questions

Our everyday life, in modern, clock regulated societies, sometimes feels like a serial of unceasing, of continuously increasing pressures and demands on our bodies and souls, on our physical and emotional being When we add to modern life styles strains created by our ambitions and by self-induced or imposed desires for success and promotions we end

up exacerbating our physical, mental, emotional and social abilities and strengths and start

to lirt with stress, anxiety and luck of time

CONTROL YOUR STRESS &

Indeed, daily schedules and program demands mercilessly steal our time and our failure to make ends meet usually is experienced as fatigue, emotional drain, tendency to absenteeism and ultimately for some of us a strong desire to run away from it all

It seems to be widely accepted among physicians, psychologists and other health professionals

as well as among the public at large that stress may contribute to serious psychosomatic disorders including high blood pressure, anxiety or depression Such problems, if left untreated, could sometimes lead to even more serious health conditions ranging from some types of cancer to cardiovascular disorders, or simply said heart problems

he number of men and women seeking psychological, psychiatric or medical advice and treatment diagnosed with a sub-layer of uncontrolled stress and anxiety is impressive and even more impressive is the number of books, pamphlets and seminars aiming to help you deal with the realities of anxiety, stress and inefective time management

In view of such an almost astronomical plethora of “helpful” publications as well as of

“enlightening” learn-how-to seminars you, as a reader, could legitimately raise the simple question relating to the practical need for the publication of yet another such book namely the one you are looking at

Having amassed half a century of experiences as an academic and a practitioner, as a public speaker and as the leader in learn-how-to seminars aiming to control stress, deal with anxiety and efectively manage time I have composed this short book as a guide to the interested reader who is seeking a diferent approach to these two topics included in its title

he positive reception of my presentations on stress, anxiety and time management to lay public audiences, to professional groups and, for several years, to high ranking military personnel attending the UNPSOTC (United Nations Peace Serving Operations Training Centre) in Greece lead me to the decision to put my verbal presentations and commentary

as well as my power point slideshows into the form of the short book now at your disposal

I am certainly pleased that Bookboon, the publisher of my previous book “Fundamentals

of Communication, P.R and Leadership” decided to publish this book

In the process of reading the book you might be surprised to ind out that I belong to that group of professionals and practitioners who see stress not as a malaise but as a natural blessing, a natural useful mechanism, when used and applied appropriately; I also consider anxiety as a motivator in exceeding self-perceived limitations of our actual, real skills and capabilities and time as an ephemeral but not incapacitating variable

CONTROL YOUR STRESS &

Combining the issues of stress control and time management in one book I aim to provide

a useful ‘breath of fresh air’ to individuals who, day-after-day, feel sinking into deeper levels

of agony, depression and loss of hope with depleted emotional and physical reserves and apparent lack of time they so desperately feel they need to complete given tasks, to realize their goals

his book aims to ofer help and advice that can be easily absorbed and as easily put in practice by anxious students and overstressed, with work overloads and time limitations, professionals

Looking at what is available in dealing with the concepts of stress and time as practical, do

it yourself guides structured with bullet-points and 1-2-3 simple (and useful) instructions,

I decided to write this book that ofers a more wholesome, a ‘holistic’ approach which will provide the readers with a more thorough familiarization with the two concepts and, hopefully, facilitate successful handling of them

I do express my gratiication to Bookboon publishing house for accepting this book and adding it to an impressive collection of books dealing with similar subjects they already have published

I am hopeful that the time you will invest reading this book, if placed in a symbolic beneit” analysis continuum, or in a personal time balance sheet, as an investment, will show up on the positive side, on the credit column

“cost-An indirect beneit to the readers of my book is that if you so wish you can abstract useful material and structure power point presentations

PART ONE – CONTROL YOUR STRESS

CONTROL YOUR STRESS &

1 WHAT IS STRESS?

Ask each person in a group of youngsters or adults, friends, schoolmates or co-workers to give you his or her deinition of stress but don’t be surprised when you discover that there

is no clear and precise consensus among them and that their answers vary widely

Additionally, what some persons may deine as their sources of stress some others will tell you that they are not bothered in the least by them and may even ind them acceptable

if not outright pleasant I would advise you not to get upset or, if you would forgive my well-intended humour, be stressed by such a inding, such a ‘discovery’

I will help you overcome your puzzlement with such indings from your informal survey

by noting that each one of us experiences stress in a very personal way In other words,

it is normal that we all have diferent stressors, emerging from our personal experience in everyday life, which can put us in stress Commuting to school or work by riding a bus or train or driving our car may be a stressing experience for some of us, given the bus time schedules and the overcrowded conditions or the traic jams but they turn out to be very pleasant experience for others

If leaving behind your informal personal survey you proceed to consult an English language

dictionary you will ind that it describes stress as “Pressure or tension exerted on a material

object.” his deinition refers to the concept of stress as it was, and continues to be, used

in the ields of physics and engineering

It would, then, appear legitimate for you to wonder how stress relates to us humans and

to human behaviour

Searching further the English language dictionary you will encounter another deinition of

stress as “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding

circumstances.” his is the deinition that we will be working with as we will be examining

the concept, the noun stress which can be found in a vast multitude of essays, pamphlets, books, seminars or course topics

Etymologically the noun can be traced to the Latin verb ‘stringere’ (to draw tight), or to the French concept ‘estresse’ (narrowness).

CONTROL YOUR STRESS &

Following this brief references to the deinition of stress some of you might be lead to ask if there are among us some people who do not experience any type of stress in their everyday life And since in this book we will be looking at the concept of time and how

to efectively manage it some of you might ask if there among us any persons who are free from the pressure of time in their daily routines

I will irst beg your forgiveness and ask for your gracious understanding as I proceed to

answer both of the above questions on stress and time with a somewhat macabre answer

which will help eliminate, once and for all, questions relating to freedom from stress, anxiety and time limitations for all of you curious readers

YES there are people who not do not experience stress and are liberated from all time limitations! You can ind such persons in your local cemetery, under a RIP (Rest in Peace) headstone but, unfortunately and understandably, they would not be able to give you the answers you crave for

Whether we like or dislike it the undeniable reality is that stress and time are two variables well interwoven in our nature as living organisms he success in limiting stress to the lowest levels humanly possible and managing our time most efectively rests in our ability

to learn how to cope with every day stressors which confront us continuously and often time without any prior warning and using creatively the time we have at our disposal since there are no ways of increasing it

It was a century ago, that the renowned, Hungarian born physiologist Dr Hans Selye

borrowing the concept of ‘stress’ from physics and engineering used it in reference to humans

and human behaviour in his pioneer research of the body’s General Adaptation Syndrome

to environmental demands A relevant reference at the site of AIS (American Institute of Stress) suggests that the concept of ‘stress’ emerged formally in the late 1940s when Selye gave a lecture to the prestigious French Academy

Since then the concept of stress has been widely used and, of course, continues to appear

in both medical and psychosocial scientiic literature as well as in popular magazine articles and everyday vernacular

A few years before his death Selye using the Greek word ‘ευ-eu’ meaning ‘good’ added it

to the word stress and the concept of ‘eustress’ was born distinguishing some pleasant and

positive aspects of stress in contrast to unpleasant and negative aspects relegated to the

concept of ‘distress’.

CONTROL YOUR STRESS &

After the above brief reference to the historical evolvement and application of the concept

of stress to biology, physiology, psychology and medicine, coming to the present we are faced with the simple indisputable, widely accepted deinition which states that:

“Stress is our body’s normal reaction to sudden environmental demands.”

Indeed, a variety of stimuli acting as ‘stressors’ elicit the reaction of stress What is interesting and should be noted properly is that ‘stressors’ which put us in the stress mode can emanate from both negative and positive sources and be related to unpleasant as well

as to pleasant experiences

herefore it should not be a surprise to any of us that we can get stressed by the failure to gain that much desired promotion or a distinction in our university dissertation as we can get stressed by the oicial announcement of a long awaited promotion which goes along with the need to move to another corporate location, by the preparations for a forthcoming holiday or the exchange of rings with our love partner

When we enter the stress mode our body will immediately mobilize all necessary energy and spend it in attempting to successfully deal with the stressors that caused it

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